Install Visual Companions

install-visual-companions

Six marketplace plugins extend this plugin's visual authoring: chart rendering, screenshot verification, whiteboard iteration, PR annotation, and the vision loop that closes an apparent runtime-capability gap through composition rather than new authorship.

None ship with this plugin. Install them one at a time, per workload, with explicit consent. Plugin names surfaced by description-match are inferred, not verified, so confirm each one against copilot plugin marketplace browse before installing.

When to fire

• The user asks: "install visual companions" / "add screenshot tooling" / "enable chart-rendering plugins" / "install eyeball" / "install the vision loop"
• The user invokes /alex-act-one install-visual-companions
• The user's declared workload involves any of:
  • Chart authoring, data storytelling, or dashboard rendering
  • Report / document generation that needs visual verification
  • PR review workflows with screenshots or annotations
  • Iterative chart design where seeing the render matters
• The render-verify skill flags a claim that would benefit from a screenshot audit

When NOT to fire

• Pure-code work, non-visual data pipelines, backend / infra without UI — the companions add zero cost when not installed but non-trivial install-time friction when installed

The companion plugins

Verified across four rounds of live install testing in 2026. The round-4 column records what was actually exercised.

storytelling-requirements was a ninth companion until 2026. Its framing role now ships here as chart-big-idea, so it needs no install.

Vision loop composition

Discovered via GH-APP-SUPPORT Round 3. The framing gate moved in-plugin on 2026-08-18, so the loop now needs three installs rather than four:

chart-big-idea  →  render-verify  →  chart-interpretation  →  eyeball
 (framing gate,      (render check)        (read-back audit)      (claim proof)
  in-plugin)

Composes end-to-end with zero conflicts. Closes what looks like a runtime-capability gap (multimodal vision on agent output) via composition, not net-new authorship. The vision loop is why the "canonical bundle" for the loop is the 3 companions above plus in-plugin framing; the other 5 fill adjacent gaps.

Expert storytelling stages

These are task-triggered options, not one required bundle. Check availability before routing; a missing companion is healthy and does not make this plugin incomplete.

Never install a companion silently. Route only to installed capabilities unless the user explicitly invokes this skill and approves each requested plugin.

Consent flow

Step 1 — Confirm the workload

Print the companion table. Ask the user:

"Which visual companions do you want? Reply 'all', name specific plugins, or 'skip' to install nothing. Framing, chart reading, and render verification already ship in this plugin as chart-big-idea, chart-interpretation, and render-verify, so none of these are needed for the core loop."

Default to no action if the user says "skip" or does not respond. Never install without an explicit consent list per plugin.

Step 2 — Verify each exists in its marketplace

Marketplaces change, and plugin names surfaced by description-match are inferred rather than verified. Confirm each name against a marketplace browse before installing.

For each plugin the user named:

copilot plugin marketplace browse <marketplace>

Scan the output for the plugin name. If not found, report to the user and drop it from the install list. Continue with the rest.

Step 3 — Marketplace registration

Both awesome-copilot and alex-mall need to be registered in ~/.copilot/settings.json extraKnownMarketplaces:

• awesome-copilot → typically pre-registered by Copilot CLI; verify with copilot plugin marketplace list
• alex-mall → copilot plugin marketplace add fabioc-aloha/Alex_Skill_Mall if not registered

Step 4 — Install commands

Run the install commands in the user's chosen order:

copilot plugin install <name>@<marketplace>

Example — install one companion:

copilot plugin install eyeball@awesome-copilot

Per-plugin, one at a time. If any install fails, report it to the user and continue with the others (installs are independent).

Step 5 — Install-time caveats

After the install commands complete, print the user the caveats for the plugins they installed:

chromium-control-canvas — Needs 3 manual post-install steps:

1. cd to the extension dir + npm install
2. npx playwright install chromium (~112 MiB download)
3. A python -m http.server workaround for file:// URLs (upstream limitation)

Node Playwright is required.

This file:// limitation belongs to chromium-control-canvas's own bundled Chromium, not to the host. VS Code's integrated browser opens file:// directly. Do not install this plugin merely to view a local file \u2014 see render-verify \u00a7 When file:// is not enough.

eyeball — Needs 2 manual post-install steps:

1. pip install playwright
2. python -m playwright install chromium (~100 MiB, independent from Node Playwright — installing one does not satisfy the other, per upstream recommendation 5 in GH-APP-SUPPORT)

Also: default output path is ~/Desktop, which is OneDrive-redirected on many Windows setups. If audit artifacts must not sync to corporate OneDrive, override the output path.

napkin and visual-pr — Also Playwright-based; may hit the same first-launch friction pattern as chromium-control-canvas.

Both browser-based plugins — Re-download Chromium (~100 MiB each) rather than sharing a common install (upstream recommendation 6 in GH-APP-SUPPORT).

Step 6 — Report

Print a summary:

• Plugins installed (with marketplace + version)
• Plugins skipped (with reason: marketplace-browse failed / user declined / already installed)
• Manual post-install steps outstanding (per caveats above; the user must run them)
• Vision loop status: if all 3 external vision-loop companions are installed, tell the user "vision loop is complete — you can invoke the composition end-to-end via any of the render-verify workflows"

Anti-patterns

Composes with

• render-verify — this plugin's own visual-output audit skill; the vision loop extends it with cross-plugin composition
• chart-big-idea — owns the framing gate at the input side of the vision loop since 2026-08-18, replacing the retired storytelling-requirements companion

Falsifiability

This skill is decorative if by 2026-11-01 (90 days):

• Users never invoke /alex-act-one install-visual-companions and always install companions ad-hoc
• The 8-plugin catalog goes stale (a plugin is retired or moved to a different marketplace) and is not refreshed
• The vision-loop composition pattern proves brittle in sustained use

Track outcomes in your project's own curation or decision log.